Killing someone with one shot is a small punishment. This is what a scholar like Xu Guangqi can say. However, the robbers are all rabble, and killing a few people is nothing to the other robbers.
What happened, so Xu Guangqi still hoped to force people to accept the conditions for peace.
"You fart!" the bandit leader yelled.
Now, this is no longer a matter of how much property can be grabbed, but a matter of his face. If the other party is a powerful caravan with hundreds of guards, then he will tolerate a small loss. Now
The other party was just a woman, a scholar, and a young man with a gun. Before the two sides fought, he had killed one person first. If he just let this matter go, how could he still be in Ning in the future?
He's hanging out on Shaanxi Road.
"Pass my order, what the opponent has to fight is nothing more than a firecracker. Let's all rush forward together. Whoever is injured by the firecracker deserves it. Those who are not injured by the firecracker will be cut into pieces."
Wan Duan, avenge Du Laoer!" the bandit leader gave the order viciously.
Before the man could get in front of the enemy, he was beaten to death with a musket. This had a great impact on the psychology of the horse thieves. They usually did robberies and rarely encountered situations where the opponent had firearms in their hands.
They didn't know how to fight against opponents with firearms. After hearing the leader's order, everyone plucked up their courage, drew their swords in their hands, and silently recited the names of the gods they believed in, hoping that if the opponent fired again, they would be beaten.
Don't be the one who gets hit.
"It seems that these strong men are determined to go against us, so we can only form a car formation to fight against them." Xu Guangqi said.
"Hey, why don't these people listen to advice?" Lu Xiuer complained, "We will definitely hurt someone again soon. If my mother knew about it, she would definitely nag her."
"Just don't tell your aunt, how could she know?" Su Xiaohu reminded from the side. He didn't know that Lu Xiuer's muttering was actually just to find reasons for herself.
As early as when the three of them were talking to the robbers, the porters behind them were already driving the carts to form a formation. These carts transporting supplies have compartments on both sides, and there are mechanisms at the head and tail, which can be connected.
It became a simple fortress. This method of using large carts to form a formation has been around for a long time. Qi Jiguang once used it to fight the Mongols. The formation of carts was unharmed in the face of the impact of the Mongolian cavalry.
The trucks of the Su family team are also designed according to the specifications that can form a car formation. Xu Guangqi and others used their ingenuity to make several improvements on the basis of the traditional car formation. In some key parts of the car, steel is also used
The strips were reinforced. It would be a wishful thinking for a few horse thieves to break through such a car formation. No wonder Lu Xiuer's most important thought at this time was not her own safety, but whether injuring the horse thieves would cause her mother to complain.
The bandits stepped back dozens of steps, dispersed their ranks, and were ready to charge. Here, Lu Xiuer and others had already ducked into the car formation. Facing the horse thieves were solid carriage boards and shooting holes.
Extended flintlock shaft.
"The opponent's car formation is nothing special. Let's rush forward and let the horses jump over the carriage board. The people in the car formation will be our meat on the chopping board." The bandit leader shouted loudly, "Come on, get ready.
rush!"
With the word "charge", more than 30 horse thieves urged their horses to rush forward. The horses' hooves stepped on the dry loess, sending up smoke and dust all over the sky. Lu Xiuer stood on a high platform built with boxes in the car array to give instructions.
Guards and craftsmen opened fire on the horse thieves. As a craftsman in a firearms factory, I often touch these flintlock guns, but I have never had the opportunity to use real people as targets. However, this time when I was delivering supplies to Ningxia
They had already encountered strong men several times on the way, and there was no longer any psychological barrier to using firearms to kill the enemy.
"Fire!" Seeing the horse thief rushing within a hundred steps, Lu Xiuer gave the order loudly. After repeated improvements, the range of Liangxiang Factory's flintlock gun can reach more than 300 steps, but to ensure the accuracy of shooting, it still needs to be
It is more effective to wait for the enemy to rush within a hundred steps and fire.
"Bash! Bash! Bash!"
There were gunshots one after another, and in the blink of an eye, five or six horse thieves had been shot, dead or injured, and fell off their horses one after another. In addition, several horses were also shot, and they felt severe pain.
Frightened by the unknown danger, the horses jumped and rolled, or threw the rider off the horse, or carried the rider far away from the battlefield.
"Charge! A man is hanging in the sky, and he will not die for eternity. Charge!" Seeing that one-third of his troops had been lost before they could reach the car formation, the bandit leader began to secretly regret his impulse.
But the arrow is on the string, and it has to be fired. The current plan is to break through the car formation, kill all the guards in the caravan, and grab the supplies to make up for the losses. If they retreat at this time, the loss will be too big.
"The horse thieves are here, reject the spurs!" Lu Xiuer issued the second order.
This method of guarding against horse thieves had been practiced by everyone before the caravan set off. After hearing Lu Xiuer's order, everyone put down their guns and pulled the machine spring on the cart. Only a burst of machinery was heard.
There was a sound of starting, and two rows of five or six-foot-long steel spikes suddenly appeared from the flat carriage board. The bright spikes were facing the direction in which the horse thieves were charging.
"Uu! Uu!!!" All the horse thieves subconsciously tightened their reins, trying to stop the galloping horses. In fact, it was not only the horse thieves who discovered the danger, but the horses also saw the sudden appearance of the long spurs in front of them.
.But everything was too late. Except for a few horses that managed to stand outside the thorns, the other dozen horses all hit the thorns head-on. The horses' blood spattered, and the horses' blood splattered before they died.
The struggle caused the large array of vehicles to shake continuously.
The war horse was impaled on a long spur, but the riders on the horse could not stop at all. They were thrown off the horse one by one. After tumbling in the air for several weeks, they fell into the car formation in embarrassment. The porters were hiding behind the car formation.
With their sharp eyesight and quick hands, they quickly stepped forward to hold down the horse thieves and tied them up one by one with hemp ropes soaked in water.
There were also those ferocious horse thieves who got up quickly after falling to the ground and fought with the trapped beasts with their swords. Upon seeing this, the guards in the car formation also drew their swords against them, bullying the few and quickly dispatched these people.
.
"What the heck!" The few surviving horse thieves in the car formation were stunned. The leader of the horse thieves shouted, and everyone turned their horses back and ran away. There was no fighting spirit. More than 30 people rushed into the formation, and more than a dozen were killed.
More than a dozen were captured alive. Even if the few remaining people could break through the car formation, how could they withstand dozens of porters and guards.
Another row of guns was fired from the car formation, knocking down two fleeing horse thieves, leaving the leader of the horse thieves and his last two minions to escape without a trace.
"Oh, why bother? So many people have been hurt again."
Lu Xiu'er came down from the high platform, directed everyone to withdraw from the car formation, and then checked the corpses of the horse thieves left on the battlefield one by one. When she encountered those who had not been hit in vital parts and could be saved, Lu Xiu'er quickly called the doctor who was accompanying the team to ask them to
He bandaged the horse thieves. Of course, the survivors had to be tied up first.
"Twelve were killed and 18 were captured alive. Ten of them were seriously injured and one was almost out of breath." After taking stock, Su Xiaohu came to report to Lu Xiuer.
Lu Xiuer said: "Put all the dead thieves into the car, and tie up the captured ones tightly. Don't let them break free in the middle of the night and hurt people. Let's hurry up and hurry up. There is a county town ahead. Let's hand over these thieves to the government for disposal.
Already."
"Understood." Su Xiaohu agreed and arranged for people to do as Lu Xiuer said.
Lu Xiuer stood there, looking at the pools of blood on the ground, feeling disgusted and sad at the same time. She was originally an extremely kind person, so she had no choice but to command her men to fight and kill the enemy. Every time after defeating a strong man, she
I have to feel sorry for those strongmen who were killed and injured for a few days.
"Xiu'er, what's wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable again?" Hao Qing stepped forward and asked Lu Xiu'er.
Lu Xiuer said with tears in her eyes: "Brother Hao, why do you think so many people died again? How uncomfortable it must be for the people in these families."
Hao Qing advised: "Xiu'er, there's nothing we can do about it. They were horse thieves and they committed a capital crime. If we hadn't been prepared today and had powerful firearms, our people might have died."
Lu Xiuer said: "I understand this truth, but I just have a soft heart and cannot bear to see dead people."
Hao Qing smiled and said: "Xiu'er, if I had known this, you shouldn't have come out with us. When you get to the border, if you encounter the Mongolian invasion, you might see more dead people. General Su is leading troops to fight.
Man, I remember there is a saying that says, yes, if a general is reduced to a thousand bones, how many people will die?"
Speaking of Su Hao, Lu Xiuer's face felt a little warm. She pouted and said, "My brother is really a good scholar. He wants to be a general instead of being a good scholar. I hate people who fight all day long."
"If that's the case, then let's turn around and go back. There are guns and cannons in our car, as well as some yellow explosive invented by Luo Xiucai. If it gets into the hands of General Su, I don't know how many lives will be hurt. Miss Xiu'er
Since we have the virtue of living well, we won't give these things away." Hao Qing teased Lu Xiuer.
"That's not possible!" Lu Xiu'er said, jumping to her feet, "It's so dangerous for my brother at the border. If the Mongols come and he doesn't have any firearms, he will suffer a loss. I've heard people say that the Mongols can't
They are so vicious and they kill without blinking an eye."
"That's it, we have to be more ruthless than the bad guys in dealing with them, don't you think?" Hao Qing said.
Lu Xiuer blushed. In fact, she understood what Hao Qing said, but she couldn't accept it emotionally. She thanked Hao Qing and ran to direct everyone to do things.
The porters hitched the big animals to the cart, and the convoy set off again. According to the map's instructions, not far ahead was their destination, Pinglu City, Ningxia. (To be continued...)